Italy's former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi has been sentenced to four years in prison for tax fraud connected to his Mediaset television channels.

The Milan court also banned Berlusconi from holding public office for three years.

Berlusconi was accused of having artificially inflated the price of film distribution rights bought by shell companies, then selling these back to Mediaset.

He has the right to appeal the ruling two more times before the sentence becomes definitive and will not be jailed unless the final appeal is upheld.

Prosecutors had asked for a jail sentence of three years and eight months.

The court also ordered damages provisionally set at 10 million euros ($12.96 million) to be paid by Berlusconi and his co-defendants to tax authorities.

The four-time prime minister and other Mediaset executives stood accused of inflating the price paid for TV rights via offshore companies controlled by Berlusconi, and skimming off part of the money to create illegal slush funds.

The investigation focused on television and cinema rights that Berlusconi's holding company Fininvest bought via offshore companies from US groups for 470 million euros between 1994 and 1999.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-10-27/berlusconi-sentenced-to-four-years-in-jail/4336832?WT.svl=news0

It was perhaps the most outlandish appearance of the campaign. Late at night on a public television station, an aged man came on looking as though he had just stepped out of a Madam Tussauds wax museum, his similarity to the embalmed Mao Zedong difficult to ignore. He read out a personal statement from a sheet of paper. The anchor standing devoutly next to him was hardly any younger.

The old man ceremoniously proclaimed the title: "Commitment to the Italians," followed by 90 seconds of vainglorious blustering. Then came the pledge: "Following the certain victory of the center-right parties in the March 4 election, I will create jobs together with the prime minister. My goal is to bring the unemployment rate below the EU average during the legislative period. Signed: Silvio Berlusconi."

The jobless rate in the European Union is 7.3 percent, while it is 10.8 percent in Italy. But Berlusconi radiated confidence. He had, after all, just repeated one of his greatest coups: Seventeen years earlier, at that same desk, in the presence of that same anchor, he had introduced his grab-bag of promises called "Contract with the Italians." That grotesque televised deal with the people contributed significantly to Berlusconi's return to the office of prime minister. 

It's as if time has stood still in Italy. Just recently, it seemed inconceivable that a man who served as prime minister four times and who - in addition to turning his country into the butt of myriad jokes - almost bankrupted Italy would once again be speaking of his political future at the ripe old age of 82.

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http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/berlusconi-hopes-to-play-king...

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The notorious website that hosts the database of Ukraine’s supposed state enemies rejoiced over the death of former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi on Monday, having branded him an ally of “Russian occupiers.”

‘Mirotvorets’ (Peacemaker) accused Berlusconi of being “an accomplice of the Russian-fascist invaders and terrorists” in their “crimes against Ukraine,” in particular for his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Yalta, Crimea in 2015.

On Monday, following the news of Berlusconi’s passing, the website put a flashing banner on top of his entry, crossed his portrait with the red letters “liquidated” and marked him as “self-liquidated on June 12, 2023.”

‘Mirotvorets’ is reportedly the brainchild of Anton Gerashchenko, who currently serves as an adviser to Kiev’s interior ministry. As its location, the website lists Warsaw, Poland and Langley, Virginia – the headquarters of the CIA. 

The site was set up in December 2014, ostensibly by private activists, to name and shame the “enemies of Ukraine.” It posted personal information of individuals targeted by Kiev – such as journalist Oles Buzina, who was murdered in April 2015. 

‘Mirotvorets’ also celebrated the killing of Russian journalist Darya Dugina, the daughter of prominent philosopher and author Aleksandr Dugin, in August 2022. Kiev denied any involvement in the car bombing that claimed her life, but the US intelligence reportedly believes that “parts” of the Ukrainian government were responsible. 

Over the years, the Mirotvorets website had blacklisted high-profile Western politicians and public figures, including Croatian President Zoran Milanovic, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, retired US diplomat Henry Kissinger, and rock musician Roger Waters, among others. 

Though the US and the UK are Ukraine’s most prominent backers, ‘Mirotvorets’ had no qualms about blacklisting Keir Simmons, a British national working for the US outlet NBC News, for visiting Crimea earlier this year. London and Washington did not protest over the listing. Many more independent journalists have been blacklisted as well.

Berlusconi’s “crime” in the eyes of Kiev was that he blamed the escalation of the Russia-Ukraine conflict on Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky and repeatedly called for a ceasefire. Though his party, Forza Italia, is a member of the current ruling coalition, he had criticized Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni for siding with Kiev.

Russian President Vladimir Putin reacted to Berlusconi’s passing by calling him “a true friend” and a real Italian patriot, who helped Italy grow stronger within the EU and forged better ties between Rome and Moscow.

Berlusconi served as prime minister three times. His last tenure lasted from 2008 to 2011.

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https://www.rt.com/russia/577922-ukraine-website-berlusconi-death/

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